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Knife-Wielding Man Robs Lowell Convenience Store

LOWELL (CBS) – Lowell police are looking for the thief who held up a Country Farms convenience store on Aiken Avenue, threatening the clerk behind the counter with a hunting knife.

Clerk Rakesh Patel says he noticed the man sitting outside the store for about ten minutes right before closing time sitting on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Patel says when he came in asking for a pack of cigarettes, he retrieved them, waited for the money and instead was greeted with the knife. “He said give me all the money in the registers or I’m going to kill you.”

Surveillance video taken from a camera right behind the counter captures a clear image of the thief’s face, wearing a stickered helmet and green canvas jacket. Patel says he emptied the cash register worried the man was about to jump the counter. “I was scared, still shaking right now,” said Patel.

Police say it’s not often they get such a clear image of a robbery suspect whose face is not covered up. “He’s either very desperate and doesn’t care whether or not he’s seen, or he’s not from the area and counting on we don’t recognize him,” said Lowell police Captain Timothy Crowley.

Police believe the man was sizing up the store waiting for the last customer to leave when he made his move. This time it was a knife but Rakesh Patel has been held up before with a gun. “That’s why I’m thinking more and more I can’t work nights,” said Patel.

He says he’s not quite able to shake the image that’s a weapon for police in their investigation.

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Emmy award-winning Beth Germano is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV News. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Germano has been a New England-based reporter for more than 15 years. She joined WBZ-TV as a freelanc...